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Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng: A Novel by Kylie Lee Baker
18 reviews
novellearts's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This was a fantastic book. I listened to the audiobook but once this releases to the public, I want to pick up a physical copy and do a reread.
I don’t always find myself enjoying books relating to Covid, I’m not really sure why but this one was didn’t fall into that category. I loved this book so much. It started strong, continued strong, and ended strong. I loved the balance between fictional horror and realistic horror. This book contains supernatural elements with ghosts, gore, and also tackles racism, prejudice, and bigotry.
This book very plainly laid out the effects of Covid specifically relating to Chinese people and the racism that openly cropped up because of it. The hate crimes, the cruel names, the mistreatment and stereotypes. Covid gave a lot of people the nerve and (in their minds), the excuse to be unapologetically and openly racist.
Cora is a crime scene cleaner and is no stranger to gore. But seeing her sister murdered at the start of the book by being shoved in front of a train, is much different. Cora starts seeing ghosts while investigating the murder of her sister and other Chinese people in her community.
Even though this book contained a lot of heaviness with very real struggles, it wasn’t too much to read. It was extremely well-done and balanced and I never felt overwhelmed while still being able to grasp the severity. I loved the plot, I loved the message, I loved the characters. The pacing was great. Everything was great. I can’t really say that I have anything to complain about in this book. I would definitely recommend this to everyone and I will be buying a physical copy once it is released.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to listen to this audiobook. All opinions are enthusiastically my own.
I don’t always find myself enjoying books relating to Covid, I’m not really sure why but this one was didn’t fall into that category. I loved this book so much. It started strong, continued strong, and ended strong. I loved the balance between fictional horror and realistic horror. This book contains supernatural elements with ghosts, gore, and also tackles racism, prejudice, and bigotry.
This book very plainly laid out the effects of Covid specifically relating to Chinese people and the racism that openly cropped up because of it. The hate crimes, the cruel names, the mistreatment and stereotypes. Covid gave a lot of people the nerve and (in their minds), the excuse to be unapologetically and openly racist.
Cora is a crime scene cleaner and is no stranger to gore. But seeing her sister murdered at the start of the book by being shoved in front of a train, is much different. Cora starts seeing ghosts while investigating the murder of her sister and other Chinese people in her community.
Even though this book contained a lot of heaviness with very real struggles, it wasn’t too much to read. It was extremely well-done and balanced and I never felt overwhelmed while still being able to grasp the severity. I loved the plot, I loved the message, I loved the characters. The pacing was great. Everything was great. I can’t really say that I have anything to complain about in this book. I would definitely recommend this to everyone and I will be buying a physical copy once it is released.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to listen to this audiobook. All opinions are enthusiastically my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Vomit
sovner736's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
A brutal and horrifying book encapsulating the reality of the pandemic whilst telling a tale of the supernatural; this book was a frank look at society during the pandemic from the rampant anti-asian racism to the loneliness of having no one during a global pandemic. Kylie Lee Baker handles all these topic with nuance and realism that makes this story truly heartbreaking.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence
Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic
operanerd's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Hate crime, Racism, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Racial slurs, Grief, and Alcohol
Minor: Forced institutionalization and Vomit
brewdy_reader's review against another edition
dark
funny
informative
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Horror • Mystery • Supernatural • Folklore
Expected Publication • 29 April 2025
Thank you @_mira_books_ @htp_hive & @harlequin_audio for the free ALC and e-book.
·˚ ༘₊·꒰➳: ̗̀➛ This will be in contention for top Horror of 2025 · ←˚ ༘₊·꒰➳: ̗̀
From the opening chapter, you can’t look away. A book that never pulls its punches, provides gripping social commentary, and blends Chinese lore and superstition against a backdrop of stereotypes and violence toward Asian Americans during the so-called “China virus”.
Cora Zeng is unemployed and needs rent money so she becomes a CSI-style crime scene cleaner. It’s one of the few things that she can stomach, ironically, as it’s impersonal and she can hide behind her mask and hazmat suit. As she and her crew respond to calls, a pattern emerges — though the deaths take different forms, the killer has a calling card involving bat entrails and body parts.
Cora is not OK but she’s getting by. She suffers from a few things, predominantly fear and PTSD following an assault and murder she witnesses and also some form of germaphobia/OCD. She’s also either losing her mind or food/drink is going missing from her apartment [where she lives alone]. Or it could be a restless spirit who hasn’t moved on to the afterlife, if you believe her Aunty Z, who is an expert on hungry ghosts.
I usually shy away from books relating to COVID-19 but this one is different. It’s not just about “what we all went through” “together”. This will punch you in the gut, make you laugh, terrify, and make you think hard about racism and domestic terrorism in our country.
‧₊˚🎧⊹ Narration of audiobook by Natalie Naudus was on point! This is the way to read this book!
TW: Murder, Gore, Misogyny, Assault, Racism, Racial Slurs
Expected Publication • 29 April 2025
Thank you @_mira_books_ @htp_hive & @harlequin_audio for the free ALC and e-book.
·˚ ༘₊·꒰➳: ̗̀➛ This will be in contention for top Horror of 2025 · ←˚ ༘₊·꒰➳: ̗̀
From the opening chapter, you can’t look away. A book that never pulls its punches, provides gripping social commentary, and blends Chinese lore and superstition against a backdrop of stereotypes and violence toward Asian Americans during the so-called “China virus”.
Cora Zeng is unemployed and needs rent money so she becomes a CSI-style crime scene cleaner. It’s one of the few things that she can stomach, ironically, as it’s impersonal and she can hide behind her mask and hazmat suit. As she and her crew respond to calls, a pattern emerges — though the deaths take different forms, the killer has a calling card involving bat entrails and body parts.
Cora is not OK but she’s getting by. She suffers from a few things, predominantly fear and PTSD following an assault and murder she witnesses and also some form of germaphobia/OCD. She’s also either losing her mind or food/drink is going missing from her apartment [where she lives alone]. Or it could be a restless spirit who hasn’t moved on to the afterlife, if you believe her Aunty Z, who is an expert on hungry ghosts.
I usually shy away from books relating to COVID-19 but this one is different. It’s not just about “what we all went through” “together”. This will punch you in the gut, make you laugh, terrify, and make you think hard about racism and domestic terrorism in our country.
‧₊˚🎧⊹ Narration of audiobook by Natalie Naudus was on point! This is the way to read this book!
TW: Murder, Gore, Misogyny, Assault, Racism, Racial Slurs
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, and Murder
shereadytoread's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is a claustrophobic, haunting, gory, horror novel. This book explores anti-Asian hate and hate crimes exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic using both crimes in NYC and the traditions of the Hungry Ghost Festival.
Cora is a character dealing with her own anxiety, obsessions, and compulsions related to cleanliness, trying to grieve her sister, managing complicated family relationships due to her multicultural background, and working her job as a crime scene cleaner.
While the book is heavy both in theme and content, there are some light moments and the book sprinkles in moments of humor well. This book is squarely horrific, both with the imagery of the ghosts and killings, but also the reflection on racism and isolation. The inclusion of the lighter moments gives some reprieve from the dread of the story, without completely taking you out of the plot.
I found the plot really interesting. However, it also has a distinct three act structure where the plot specifically shifts. It's a little jarring, but Cora's internal musings do manage to keep the story moving along without feeling complete disjointed.
Disclosure: I received an ARC and eARC of this book from the publisher.
Cora is a character dealing with her own anxiety, obsessions, and compulsions related to cleanliness, trying to grieve her sister, managing complicated family relationships due to her multicultural background, and working her job as a crime scene cleaner.
While the book is heavy both in theme and content, there are some light moments and the book sprinkles in moments of humor well. This book is squarely horrific, both with the imagery of the ghosts and killings, but also the reflection on racism and isolation. The inclusion of the lighter moments gives some reprieve from the dread of the story, without completely taking you out of the plot.
I found the plot really interesting. However, it also has a distinct three act structure where the plot specifically shifts. It's a little jarring, but Cora's internal musings do manage to keep the story moving along without feeling complete disjointed.
Disclosure: I received an ARC and eARC of this book from the publisher.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Xenophobia
Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Abandonment
clovetra's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
thank you netgalley & hachette australia and new zealand for providing me a copy of this book in return for a honest review 🥰
this was such a powerful book and i was not expecting that at all.
bat eater follows cora zeng, a wasian twenty-something trying to navigate her life during the covid-19 pandemic. cora lives with her sister, until she’s tragically pushed in front of a train right in front of cora’s eyes. suddenly her life is upended, and she becomes a crime scene cleaner. but suddenly cora witnesses an uptick of murdered east asian women, and as she becomes entangled with something living in her home, cora seeks to find out what’s happening to her fellow “bat eaters”.
cora is an amazing protagonist. she feels realistic in so many ways, such as how she approaches the “roommate” she has, but also in general. all her decisions feel like they make sense, and she doesn’t do anything out of character just to further the plot, which i really appreciate. also!!! hello!!! cora is great ocd representation!!! yes yes it’s the ‘cLiChE’ contamination ocd, but still, cora’s paranoia felt so raw, especially compounded during a pandemic. i was very much like her (until i caught covid for the first time) so i very much related to cora, which always adds extra enjoyment to a book for me. the character development she undergoes throughout the story also feels very natural, and honestly i forgot at times i was reading a work of fiction and that cora wasn’t a real person. that’s how natural she felt.
speaking of covid, im usually one who hates when books mention it. it completely breaks my immersion and honestly im not a fan….. usually. this book does not follow that pattern for me. the entire plot hinges on covid-19, so it’s not just some stupid throwaway line which is what i hate, but instead its immeshed in the plot flawlessly. and i mean the entire plot DOES follow covid-19, because without that, we wouldn’t have delilah being killed due to being a “bat eater”, or the bat carcasses found at the east-asian women’s crime scene, or even the rise of anti-asian hate in this book make any sense. i liked seeing the steady progression of these plot elements, and the book didn’t feel fantastical because what it was talking about *did* happen to asians worldwide during covid-19. i really enjoyed how the themes of racism surrounding the pandemic were explored, and the character’s actions and reactions to it mimicked reality, which i liked. because events did mimic reality, i didn’t feel like they were being exaggerated in this book.
i’ll be honest and say i didn’t care about most of the side characters. maybe because i loved cora so much, who knows. but yifei is a queen. not only was she integral to the plot in, yet again, a way that felt natural, but she was funny, caring, knowledgeable, and mysterious. i also liked that yifei didn’t take any shit, and she felt like a great foil to cora — one woman too scared to do anything for fear of being targeted, and one woman who’s doing whatever she wants because she’ll never know when her time is up. i really liked that. the other side characters i kind of didn’t care about. i mean the only other significant characters were harvey & aunt z, and they were ok, but didn’t pop out to me like yifei did.
now honestly, i only have one “gripe” with this book. it’s not even a gripe. i just wanted more horror. this felt maybe more like magical realism to me? idk. there defo were some horror elements, but i expected not only more horror, but for the horror to be more. you know?
also, ill be honest, the plot is… difficult. it was for me, but i can see it not being for everyone. i was able to latch on to cora so quickly, i straight up didn’t even care what we were doing plot-wise. cora was so engaging to me honestly i forgot about the entire serial killer plot for a while 😭 like only at the end i was like “oh yeah that plot! omg!” not to say i didn’t like it! i did like the serial killer plot! but there is a lot going on story wise at times, what with the hungry ghost festival, the serial killer, the crime scenes, the pandemic, hate crimes, cora’s ocd, cora’s feelings towards delilah, etc. not to say i felt like it was too much going on, but i feel like people looking for a book focused mainly on one of those elements or plot points won’t enjoy this, as cora is the anchor, and everything else kind of works around her. i still enjoyed it tho!
bat eater is a horror book in many ways. but the true horror in this book is found not only in the treatment of asian people during the covid-19 pandemic, but in the horror of death, the afterlife, and achieving justice for those wronged in life. it’s not only a novel with mystery and gore and death, but a novel about learning to be your own person, and letting go.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Mental illness, Racism, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, and Alcohol
Minor: Child abuse and Death of parent
bakersbookends's review
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Police brutality, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Child abuse and Emotional abuse
purplemuskogee's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I read this so quickly and found it so hard to put down. Again, it's a genre I rarely read but what a book! Cora, daughter of a Chinese man and a white American mother, lives in New York with her half-sister Delilah, who is beautiful and arty and dreams of becoming a model, when Covid begins. After Delilah is pushed under a subway train by a stranger, Cora becomes a crime scene cleaner and starts noticing a huge number of murder victims seem to be young East-Asian women, and as strange events keep happening, her and her two colleagues Harvey and Yifei start to investigate.
In the afterword, Kylie Lee Baker writes that the pandemic has changed the world because of "the way we sacrificed the elderly and disabled on the altar of capitalism, the way trust in the government and the CDC swiftly dissolved, and the way we as a country still haven't learned not to scapegoat an entire race of people in times of fear". Of course she is writing about the US but it feels true in so many countries.
I tend to avoid COVID content like the plague (sorry), I avoid novels set during COVID, I hate TV shows that tried to show us their version of COVID. The COVID episodes of Grey's Anatomy are the absolute worst.
But in a gory, graphic horror novel about racism and ghosts and alienation, with a heroine who suffers from OCD and cleans "people's entrails for a living" I found that it felt like a more sincere and a more genuine depiction.
Free ARC sent by Netgalley.
In the afterword, Kylie Lee Baker writes that the pandemic has changed the world because of "the way we sacrificed the elderly and disabled on the altar of capitalism, the way trust in the government and the CDC swiftly dissolved, and the way we as a country still haven't learned not to scapegoat an entire race of people in times of fear". Of course she is writing about the US but it feels true in so many countries.
I tend to avoid COVID content like the plague (sorry), I avoid novels set during COVID, I hate TV shows that tried to show us their version of COVID. The COVID episodes of Grey's Anatomy are the absolute worst.
But in a gory, graphic horror novel about racism and ghosts and alienation, with a heroine who suffers from OCD and cleans "people's entrails for a living" I found that it felt like a more sincere and a more genuine depiction.
Free ARC sent by Netgalley.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Racial slurs, and Pandemic/Epidemic
woodsybookworm's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng follows twenty-something Cora as she works cleaning scenes. When Cora and her friends notice a series of deaths where mutilated bats are left behind with the victims, the trio begins to suspect foul play and begin their own research into a potential serial killer.
While all this is happening, Cora also experiences a supernatural horror - hungry ghosts are stalking her in the night and she has to find a way to get rid of them. With supernatural entities and human killers around every corner, how are Cora and company supposed to make it out alive?
I'm not usually a fan of books that revolve around COVID, but this novel felt like a perfect balance between fiction and reality relating to the emotions and experiences of COVID without using it as a crutch - the story flows and stands on it's own.
The characters of this book were also very real. I was rooting for them the whole time and (spoiler alert) each loss felt absolutely gut wrenching. While the story started out slow it picked up momentum at the halfway mark and kept me hooked with both the ghost and the serial killer storyline to the very end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Hate crime, Racial slurs, and Racism
cbookaddiction's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Violence, Blood, and Pandemic/Epidemic